This invention pertains to providing services to a client, and more particularly to providing services to a lender with respect to a loan for purchase of a vehicle and recording a certificate of title to the vehicle.
Lenders, such as banks, credit unions and finance companies, loan money to consumers for the purchase of assets or items of personal property, particularly a vehicle, such as an automobile, motorcycle or boat. The asset purchased typically serves as collateral to secure the loan. A lender publicly records its collateral position regarding the asset by filing a lien on a certificate of title evidencing ownership of the asset. This public filing and the subsequent notation of the lien on the face of the certificate of title is required to provide notice to third parties of the presence of the lien against the asset evidenced by the certificate of title. The public filing of the lien varies by jurisdiction in terms of method and timing. Some jurisdictional public lien filing methods result in the lender taking possession of the certificate of title with its lien noted on the face of the certificate of title, while other jurisdictional public lien filing methods result in the purchaser taking possession of the certificate of title with the lender's lien noted on the face of the certificate of title. The service of offering loans is labor intensive, and preparing and tracking the various documents required to publicly record the lien of the lender in these types of transactions is tedious and time consuming.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,904,412, issued to Broadbent, et al., and incorporated by reference, describes a lender's work flow in processing a loan and securing the loan amount, although for real estate transactions rather than for purchases of personal property. Broadbent, et al. describe an automated compliance engine that generates a list of tasks which can be used to control and drive the process of handling a mortgage loan application to completion and to monitor the completion of the tasks.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,064, issued to Rose, Jr. and incorporated by reference, provides information concerning titles to vehicles, vehicle identification numbers and state departments of motor vehicles that regulate the sales of vehicles. Rose, Jr. describes a centralized computer data base(s) operating in a “client-server” computer environment for use in creating a title history file, where the centralized data base is connected to various authorized agents such as insurance agents and car dealers, and to governmental agents such as a department of motor vehicles and tax collecting entities.